Edge of the Bridge
by StoryGirl.98
Summary: AU: Rose Tyler's life has become horrible, and she just can't bear living anymore. And so she stands, at the edge of a bridge, ready to jump and end it all. But then an odd man in a leather jacket comes along, and he tries to talk her out of it. Slight Rose x Doctor. No longer a oneshot, now a chapter story!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** So I saw a prompt, saying 'Imagine your OTP as complete strangers to each other. Person A is about to jump off a bridge/building/other high place, and person B tries to talk them out of it.' And since Rose/Doctor has been like the only thing in my head lately, this came forth.  
This is really really AU, and Rose and the Doctor are going to be a little (maybe more than a little) OOC. But that's on purpose. You can't have an AU like this without them being OOC.  
**Trigger Warning: This talks about suicide, a lot.**

* * *

She ignored the cold, sharp wind cutting into her skin, she ignored the full moon and hundreds of stars in the nighttime sky, she blocked everything out of her mind, and focused down at her feet, and the edge of a rusty old bridge beneath them, and the dark waters below. If one were to jump into those waters, they would be dragged under and swept away in an instant. Even if they did manage to swim, the cold would finish them. To jump would be to die.

Rose Tyler was planning to jump.

Her life had no meaning, not to her. Her dad dead, her mother shortly following her dad. Her boyfriend had left her, and Rose was left with no friends, no family, no job, no anything. She had tried, and she had struggled, and in the end, she had failed. Life had become challenging, and utterly worthless to her.

Taking a deep breath, Rose tucked back a piece of hair the wind blew lose, and looked back at the sky. The last time she'd ever see it.  
"This is it," She whispered. Shutting her eyes tight, she edged a little forward, and was about to about to end it, when she felt someone grab her and tug her backwards.

Rose stumbled backwards and pushed herself away from whoever grabbed her, and opened her eyes.

There was a man there, looking at her. He had short hair, and leather jacket, and a concerned look on his face.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Rose took a few steps back.

"Does it matter?" She said, not sure if he understood what she was going to do.

"Well, yes. Why were you so close to the edge anyway?"

Rose cast her glance down at her feet, away from the stranger.

"Um," she said nervously. Understanding flashed across the mans face.

"Oh," he said, realization dawning. "Why would you want to... you know..."

Rose stiffened. She didn't feel like explaining her life to some stranger.

"I have my reasons," she replied.

"But why? What could be so bad that the only solution is to end it all?"

_Here it comes_, Rose thought. _Oh, the beauty of life, why would you want to die? You're beautiful and talented, blah blah blah_. She had heard the same argument from therapists and 'friends' alike, but no one knew. No one really, truly knew what it was like for her. They pretended to know, but it was all stereotypical nonsense about 'the fantastic thing called life'.

"Listen, sir, I've tried, and it's just not working. Nothing... nothing's working. I've made my choice, now leave me be," Rose stated firmly, and then moved back to her position at the edge of the bridge. She waited for the man to leave, but she didn't hear his retreating footsteps. Instead, he walked towards her, and stood right next to her.

He reached over and held her hand.

"No."

"No?"

"No, I won't leave you alone. No one should die alone."

"B-but," Rose started, before being interrupted.

"If you're going to jump, then I'll jump with you," the man said, with a half smile.

"But why?" Rose said, gently trying to tug her hand away, but the man just held it tighter, "Don't you have a family or something?"

The stranger shook his head.

"Friends? Co-workers? Something?"

"Nope. No one."

Rose finally succeeded in pulling her hand away.

"It's just not right, you aren't going to do this," Rose said.

"Then neither are you," The man said with a grin.

There was a silence, Rose and the man staring each other down, until the man spoke again.

"Well- what's your name?"

"Rose. Rose Tyler."

"Well then, how about I prove to you life's worth living?"

"And how exactly are you planning to do that?"

"Rose Tyler, I'm gonna show you the universe."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: What's this? I said this would be a oneshot, so whats with this chapter, you ask?

Well, I got a review, from Summoning Secrets, who suggested writing the oneshot from the Doctors POV. I loved the idea, so here it is!

I personally loved how this came out, and I am interested in continuing this, as a chapter story, that is, if anyone is interested. So tell me whatcha think, should I continue this or no?

* * *

It was a cold chilly night with the wind blowing rough, and the Doctor tugged his leather jacket a bit tighter around him as he exited the TARDIS.

He gave the old blue Police Box a glare as the door shut behind him. He was supposed to be in France, around the nineteenth century, but instead he had landed on some forgotten road by a river, and most likely in the twenty-first century. After arriving the TARDIS had refused to budge, and so the Doctor decided to look around a bit and give her some time to cool down.  
The place around him was deserted, probably no one had been here in a long time. It was an old dirt road, trailing off into nearby woods. From where the road came was an old rusty bridge, high above the river waters.  
The Doctor decided to head in that direction, maybe watch the water for a bit. It had been so long since he had just taken the time to wander about someplace.

As he continued his short walk, he was surprised to find he was not alone.

There was a girl, standing on the side of the bridge, just at the edge. She seemed to be doing the same thing he was doing, enjoying the midwinter night. However, her eyes were shut, and he breathing was shaky. She seemed to edge a bit forwards, she must have not known how close she was to the edge.

The girl's balance was a bit off, and it looked like she was going to fall.

Jumping into action, the Doctor raced forwards and wrapped his arms around the girl, and then took a few quick steps backwards, safely away from the edge.

The girl pushed herself away from him and stumbled backwards, a disoriented look on her face. She noticed him, and got even more confused.

"Are you okay?" He asked, hoping he didn't accidentally hurt her. The girl edged a few steps back.

"Does it matter?" She replied, a bit nervously.

"Well, yes," The Doctor said. Why wouldn't it not matter? "Why were you so close to the edge anyway?"

"Um," she said, looking down at her feet, unable to make eye contact for some reason.

It took the Doctor a few moments, but things soon clicked.

Her nervousness, why she was so close to the edge and why she moved even closer, shakiness of breath and why she thought her okay-ness didn't matter.

She was going to commit suicide.

"Oh," was all he said when he realized.

He was at that point once before, he didn't really like to think about it, it brought up way too many bad memories, of the Time War, of his previous lives and friends and family, and how they were all gone.

If there was one thing that the Doctor hated, it was being alone, and him being alone had once put him in the same state of the girl before him.

"Why would you want to... you know..." he asked gently. Maybe if he could figure out the cause, he could help her. He was fantastic at helping people.

The girl visibly stiffened, and the Doctor didn't blame her. Telling someone why you wanted to kill yourself isn't an easy thing to do, not at all.

"I have my reasons," she replied curtly.

"But why?" The Doctor pressed further, "What could be so bad that the only solution is to end it all?"

A small bit of annoyance crossed the girls features, no doubt she was expecting the Doctor to go on a stereotypical rant about the beauty of life.

"Listen, sir, I've tried, and it's just not working. Nothing... nothing's working. I've made my choice, now leave me be," the girl stated firmly.

Without a second glance at the Doctor, the girl moved back to her perch at the edge of the bridge. The Doctor feared for a moment she might jump, right then and there, but instead she waited, most likely for him to leave.

Instead of tugging her away from the edge again, or trying to talk the reason out of her, the Doctor decided to try a different approach.

He walked towards her and stood right next to her.

And then he reached over and took her hand in his.

"No." was all he said.

"No?" the girl questioned.

"No, I won't leave you alone. No one should die alone."

"B-but," the girl started, but the Doctor quickly cut her off.

"If you're going to jump, then I'll jump with you," he said, offering a small smile.

The girl tried pulling her hand away, and he just held on a little bit tighter.

"But why? Don't you have a family or something?"

The Doctor just shook his head.

"Friends? Co-workers? Something?"

"Nope. No one."

The girl tried pulling her hand back again, and the Doctor reluctantly let go this time.

"It's just not right, you aren't going to do this," the girl said.

"Then neither are you," The Doctor replied with a grin.

There was a tense moment of silence, the girl and the Doctor staring each other down.

A small idea popped into the Doctor's head, and the more he thought about it the more fitting it seemed. He hadn't had someone travel with him in a very long time, and it'd be nice to not be alone again.

"Well- what's your name?"

"Rose. Rose Tyler."

Rose, it suited her. She looked like a Rose. Unfortunately, she looked like a Rose who hadn't been loved or taken care of in a very long time. A lonely, broken Rose.

But the Doctor wanted to fix that.

"Well then, how about I prove to you life's worth living?"

Rose looked curiously at him.

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" she asked.

"Rose Tyler," he said, moving to hold her hand once more, "I'm gonna show you the universe."


	3. Chapter 3

He reached over and held her hand again.

"Rose Tyler, I'm gonna show you the universe," He said with a grin.

And with that, he started walking away from the bridge edge, and down the road, gently tugging Rose after him.

"Um, what's your name?" Rose said, following him.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Well then, Doctor, where are you taking me?" Rose asked, a bit nervously. The Doctor seemed nice, but really you could never tell.

They walked a few more yards and soon the Doctor stopped, right in front of a large, blue box. The sign on it said it was a Police Box, and a smaller sign on the door said that it was free for public use, amongst a few other notes. The Police Box was a deep shade of blue, one of the prettiest colors Rose had ever seen, even if it was slightly faded. It had two windows in the front, and there seemed do be a light on inside.

The Doctor pushed the door open (ignoring the sign's obvious instructions to pull), and stepped inside. Rose hesitated for just a moment, and then she quickly stepped inside.

Rose gasped.

Instead of being small and Police Box sized on the inside, it was huge. It wasn't rectangular, like the insides of most boxes, it was more like a dome. It had a large glass tube in the center, which was surrounded by what looked like a control center, that had various switches and buttons on it. The room seemed to have a few halls leading off of it to somewhere. It was sparsely furnished, and everything seemed to be tan or blue or green. All in all, it looked very... alien.

Rose backed up a few steps so she was standing outside, and quickly circled around the Police Box. It seemed perfectly ordinary from the outside. Trying to wrap her mind around the fact that something like this could even exist, she stepped back into the box, hearing the soft click of the doors closing behind her.

The Doctor carefully watched Rose's reaction. He knew some humans got a little overwhelmed by the TARDIS. He leaned against the center console while she got over the initial shock.

"So, what do you think?" he asked after a moment.

"It's, it's bigger on the inside," she said. The Doctor smiled; they always said that.

"Yeah," he replied.

Rose moved towards him, walking up a few steps to stand by him.

"It's called the TARDIS," he began to explain, trying to keep things simple. "Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"So it's a spaceship?" Rose asked.

The Doctor nodded.

"A spaceship, and a time machine."

Rose placed a hand over her mouth to stifle another gasp. Time travel couldn't be real, could it?

"You okay? It can be a bit overwhelming."

"I'm... okay, I guess. It's just all so..." she paused for a moment to try to find the right word. The Doctor nodded to show he understood.

"So, it's alien?" she asked, somewhat casually, although slightly apprehensively.

"It is," he answered simply. He wouldn't give any more information, unless she asked.

"And you're alien?"

"I am."

"So when you said you'd show me the universe, you meant it quite literally," Rose said with a light laugh. The Doctor smiled, and then turned to the controls.

"Where do you want to start?"

* * *

A/N: So, I've decided to turn it into a chapter story!

And thanks soooooo much for all of your feedback! It helped a ton, knowing that people would actually want to read this.


	4. Chapter 4

_"So when you said you'd show me the universe, you meant it quite literally," Rose said with a light laugh. The Doctor smiled, and then turned to the controls._

_"Where do you want to start?"_

Rose thought for a moment. The entire universe was in her hands, and oddly enough she couldn't think of single place to go.

Going some place on Earth would be too dull compared to the other opportunities. She didn't know what planets and places the universe had to offer, and she didn't want to sound silly by suggestion some place entirely out of the question.

The Doctor noticed her taking a long time with an answer, and decided to offer some suggestions, just to nudge her in the right direction.

"Past, present, or future?" he asked, his voice breaking Rose out of her thoughts.

"Future," she answered after a moment.

"Earth or... someplace else?"

"Um, I'm not sure."

The Doctor saw her uncertainty, but he decided not to point it out, no need to embarrass the girl. He turned to the center controls, and began flipping switches and pressing a button here and there.

"Well, you've already met me, and you already walked into a box that's bigger on the inside, and you've already found out that time travel is indeed real, so how about we stick to Earth? Start you off simple, yeah?" he said.

"Yeah, that's be great," Rose said with a smile, relieved that the decision was taken off her shoulders.

The Doctor continued to control the TARDIS, punching in various coordinates.

He soon finished setting the course towards their intended destination. He could have finished it much sooner, but he decided to show off a bit for Rose and do the more elaborate process. They arrived at their destination a few seconds later.

"Here we are," he said.

"But, we haven't moved. At least, I didn't feel us move," Rose replied.

"We have moved. Teleported, sort of. It's a complicated process, I won't bore you with the details."

Rose nodded, and she walked down the steps to the doors. She peered out of one of windows, although she couldn't see anything through the frosted glass.

She looked back at the Doctor hesitantly, who gave her a smile. Taking a deep breath, Rose pushed the door open and exited the TARDIS.

To her surprise, they were no longer in the woods by the road, instead, they were in a spacious room.

The thing that caught her attention was a large window right in front of her, and outside the window was outer space. Rose's eyes widened in surprise.

She heard the Doctor exit the TARDIS, shutting the doors behind him, and moving to stand next to her.

"I-I thought you said we were going someplace on Earth?" Rose said. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about being in outer space, it seemed interesting while being vaguely terrifying.

"Well, we're right by Earth," The Doctor said in his defense, pointing to the familiar blue and green planet.

Rose noticed a large, glowing mass behind the Earth, almost reminding her of the sun. But that couldn't be it, could it?

"This is the year five billion. We are currently on Platform One, where we can watch this," he said, gesturing out to the window just as the glowing mass edge forward, "The sun's expanding, and today it's going to engulf the Earth. Welcome to the end of the world."

* * *

A/N: I'm back! So sorry this took a while, but I've been having massive writers block lately :/ But I am back, so yay!

As you can see, I've decided to more or less follow the plot of the show, with probably come changes. This Rose and Doctor are completely different (personality-wise) from the show Rose and Doctor, so of course their reactions and personalities and how they act will be different, so it shouldn't be boring!

And thanks so so so much for all the feedback, you guys are awesome!


End file.
